View full sizeRafts of Northern pintail ducks have gathered in the flooded fields of Holmes County.Jerry Talkington/Special to The Plain Dealer

Every year about this time birders get antsy for the spring migration to kick in.

And every year my birding buddy Jeff Wert and I have the same solution for this bout of anxiety. We drive about an hour south to one of the most bountiful expanses of wetlands and agricultural fields found anywhere in the state: the Funk Bottoms and Killbuck Marsh wildlife areas in Holmes County, just south of Wooster.

Our annual attempt at jump-starting spring inevitably produces some of the most productive waterfowl- and raptor-viewing opportunities of the year, and last weekend’s venture to Amish Country was typically rewarding. The horses-and-buggies passing by on the road to Sunday services enhanced the experience.

View full sizeRing-necked ducks are some of the most common waterfowl at the Funk Bottoms Wildlife Area.Jerry Talkington/Special to The Plain Dealer

As often is the case in mid-March, the weather didn’t cooperate with our plans. It was 20 degrees out, with light flurries and ice encrusting large swaths of the flooded fields. But the birds didn’t seem to mind, flocking together in huge rafts wherever open water provided access for the divers and dabblers to feast on fish and marine vegetation.

We tallied 19 species of waterfowl and six species of raptors, and returned home with refreshed expectations for the waves of spring migrants that are soon to follow in Northeast Ohio.

Counting the numbers of each species was nearly impossible. Hundreds of tundra swans arrived at the Funk wetlands in a blizzard of white on their journey from wintering grounds on the East Coast to their ultimate nesting destinations in the high Arctic tundra. Their mournful, high-pitched, yodeling call is a thrilling sound of spring and fall migration in our area.

A closer examination of the ducks that surrounded the swans revealed an amazing number of Northern pintails – a handsome dabbler with a chocolate head, pearly white neck and long black tail, once threatened by precipitously declining populations.

View full sizeNearly two dozen sandhill cranes can be seen in the corn stubble of Funk Bottoms.Judy Semroc/Special to The Plain Dealer

Hooded and common mergansers appeared to have already paired up in preparation for nesting, as had the stunningly plumed wood ducks.

Counting was easier for the 20 or so sandhill cranes – stately, long-necked gray birds with bright red crowns – that circled overhead and settled down in the fields to feed on corn and earthworms exposed in freshly plowed soil.

Occasionally, huge clouds of waterfowl would explode into the air, likely spooked by a marauding bald eagle or peregrine falcon.

View full sizeCanvasbacks can be seen in Holmes County ponds and on Lake Erie in Cleveland.Chuck Slusarczyk Jr.

A gorgeous dark-phase rough-legged hawk hunted a farmer’s property, hovering on the wind, remaining stationary in the air as it awaited a rodent to appear.

Red-tailed, red-shouldered and Cooper’s hawks scanned the area for vulnerable prey, and American kestrels perched on utility wires.

Eastern bluebirds called as they swept by. Killdeer – the first shorebirds of the spring – gathered in muddy fields. Massive flocks of red-winged blackbirds and common grackles moved about as shape-shifting clouds, eventually landing in the corn stubble to chow down.

View full sizeEastern bluebirds are brightening the landscape as winter releases its icy grip on NE Ohio.Judy Semroc/Special to The Plain Dealer

Northern flickers were desperately seeking ants in the frozen turf, and a red-headed woodpecker fluffed up against the bitter winds on a dead tree in the marshes surrounding the fish farms outside Wooster.

A different mass of thousands of waterfowl gathered Saturday on Lake Erie at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, where birders lined up with spotting scopes to scan the ducks and gulls.

The pomarine jaeger that had lurked in the Flats for more than a week made a brief appearance on the ice before disappearing – perhaps for good.

Iceland and glaucous gulls feasted on fish on the ice, in the company of hundreds of herring and ring-billed gulls, and a few lesser black-backed gulls.

The open water was filled with red-breasted and common mergansers, plus lesser and greater scaup, redhead, canvasback, and common goldeneye.

A warm-up and accompanying thaw were predicted for the coming week. Wert and I have seen the birding scene that awaits us, and it’s an amazing sight.

SIGHTINGS

The ongoing influx of red-necked grebes continued last week, with a bird in the canal along the towpath trail beside Manchester Road south of Akron, plus three grebes each off the pier at Avon Lake and at the Walter Best Reservoir near Chardon, per Gregory Bennett, Gabe Leidy and Sally Isacco.

Other birds seen by Bennett included five sandhill cranes flying over the towpath trail, and large flocks of tundra swans and ducks at Turkeyfoot Lake, Nimisila Reservoir and West Branch State Park.

Diane Millett photographed about two dozen tundra swans resting amid the ice floes on Lake Erie off the coast of the North Collinwood neighborhood.

Fox sparrows are returning to Northeast Ohio, showing up at feeders at Ashley Heeney’s house in Copley, and at the Seiberling Nature Realm in Akron.

BIRD WALKS

Enjoy the waterfowl migration at the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail in Akron on Friday, March 21, at 9 a.m.. Meet at the Summit Lake Trailhead, 380 W. Crosier St. For more information call 330-865-8065.

Gulls and waterfowl will be the target birds on Saturday, March 22, at Rocky River Park and other lakefront parks. Meet at the park at 8:30 a.m. The tour will later visit Elmwood Park, Lakewood Park, and Perkins Beach at Edgewater Park.

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